Six Flags, former Elitch Gardens owner, files for Chapter 11 - Memphis Business Journal:

mozybyd.wordpress.com
The board of Six Flags (OTCBB: SIXF) voted last week to begih reorganization proceedingsin U.S. Bankruptcgy Court for the Districtof Delaware. The company listee assets of $3.03 billion and debts of $2.36 billion in its filing. Cascade the investment firm for Microsoft founder Bill owns 11.1 percent of the voting securities in New York-basede Six Flags, the largest bankruptcy documents show. Six Flags has 97.7 millionm shares of common stockand 1.1 million shares of preferrede stock. "The current management team inheritesda $2.4 billion debt load that cannot be particularly in these challenging financial markets," said Mark president and CEO of Six Flags, in a statement.
"As a we are cleaning up the past and positioningh the company for futuregrowth ... Following a recorrd year of performancein 2008, whichn completed the three-year turnaround of our system-wide park this action to clean up the balance sheet paves the way for a full revival of the company," Shapirlo said. Elitch Gardens had operatedf for more than a centurgy at a northwestDenver site. The old Elitchy Gardens shut downin 1994, and a new versiojn of the amusement park opened a year later in downtowjn Denver. The local Gurtler family and its financial partnerx sold the new park to PremierParks Inc.
in 1996 for $65 It became Six Flags Elitch Gardenes twoyears later, when Premier acquired Six Flagws Inc. and changed its corporate name toSix Flags. Six Flags sold off Elitch's and other properties in 2007 in a series of transactiond that left the Denver attraction in the hands of CNL IncomeProperties Inc., a real estate investment trust basedf in Orlando, Fla. CNL reportedly paid $312 million for the properties. CNL arranged for Parc Managementt LLC of Florida tomanage Elitch's. Six Flags now operates about 20 North Americanamusement parks.